On Friday night of the Memorial Day weekend, Downtown Little Leaguers of all ages converged on the Battery Park City fields for a home run derby organized by League President Bill Martino and sponsored by Zucker’s. Sluggers were given the opportunity to hit machine-pitched balls and were scored on the number of balls they hit “out of the park” before getting 10 outs.
Among those qualifying for round two were Clyde Huibregtse, Devin Minnihan, Josh Fish, Will Best, Ethan Wallis, Tyler Rohan, Niall Gallagher, Nicky Leong, Jack Clothier and Spencer Kiehl. Four made it to round three: Majors’ players Will Best, Ethan Wallis and Niall Gallagher, as well as Minor AA player Jack Clothier, but it was Best that took the prize.
On Saturday, advanced skills teams from Majors and Minors teams played inter-league double-headers. The American League Majors’ players (missing their 11th player, Luca Romeo, due to an illness) lost their first game. They were subjected to a mercy rule when the Greenwich Village Little League team proved that size doesn’t matter, beating them 13-3. (The average height of the G.V.L.L. team was approximately 8” inches less than the Downtown team in an unofficial observation.) Tyler Kraehling demonstrated that he was saving his home runs for team play, knocking the ball out of J.J. Walker Field. Kraehling also had the best pitching stats for the American League, striking out 13 and allowing no runs in six innings pitched, and he had the most RBIs (9) for the series. And Dario Flores started his hitting streak in Game 1, with a single and a crank to short centerfield. He also walked and ended up stealing home in the third inning, and had the team’s highest on-base percentage for the weekend (.692)
In the afternoon game, the Downtown American team, coached by Scott Noga and David Conover, came back with a vengeance, winning 14-3 in a game against the Downtown Majors National league players. Doug Stapler pitched a tight game, allowing only two runs in four innings, and after striking out three times in one day, he sent one over the B.P.C. fence for an exciting grand slam. Jackson Kaufman closed, striking out three out of four batters (and offensively, knocking in three runs.) Jonathan Sandella took a base on balls, though, and stole all the way to home for the National League team’s third run. Clyde Huibregtse batted 1000, smacking the ball twice to right center field and taking one for the team. Will Best (who played consistently well as catcher for the team) was also hit by a pitch, scoring in the inning, and later hit an RBI double. Niall Gallagher singled and drove in a run in Game two, and a two-RBI double in game three. On the field, he fielded several grounders successfully at shortstop.
Games three and four ended with the American team scoring 25 runs and shutting out both opponents (Peter Stuyvesant Little League team A and team B) on Sunday. At ConEd fields for game three, Ryan Porcaro continued his hitting and scoring streak against the A team (seven hits and nine stolen bases were the team highs). Porcaro finished the weekend with the highest batting average on the team (.583), and made several key plays in centerfield and at shortstop. In the second inning of Game three, every one of the 10 players ended up on base and scored a run for the American team.
Tyler Rohan had 12 at-bats in the series, taking pitchers up to a full count before each of his four walks, as well as two home runs (Games 4 and 5.) Rohan also pitched in two of the games; striking out six and allowing only one run in four and two-thirds innings. His first home run in game four was followed by another explosive hit by teammate Tyler Kraehling, who hit the first floor window of the neighboring building. Also in game four, Michael Bogdanos drove one up the middle for a two-RBI-single.
Losing to G.V.L.L. 7-2 in the final game on Memorial Day landed the American team in second place. Winning against P.S.L.L in the final game gave the National League team a third place finish.
